The sermon 'Seven Robber Barons - Pt 3' by Peter Allison delves into the concept of justification and condemnation as forensic declarations, focusing on Proverbs 17. It discusses how these terms are used in Scripture, emphasizing that justification is a legal declaration rather than an infusion of righteousness. The sermon contrasts this view with the Roman Catholic understanding of ongoing justification as clarified at the Council of Trent. It highlights the importance of righteous judgments in accordance with God's Word, using examples from Job, Deuteronomy, and Jeremiah to illustrate the consequences of applying incorrect standards. The sermon also explores the theological implications of God justifying the ungodly through faith in Christ, explaining that Christ's righteousness is imputed to believers, making them just before God. The need for accurate knowledge of facts and unbiased judgments is emphasized, and the sermon warns against the societal and spiritual repercussions of unrighteous judgments, advocating for truth and justice in alignment with biblical teachings.

Proverbs chapter 17 I'd like to read our passage the text we've been looking at the last few weeks, please Follow along beginning at verse 9 He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends. Rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool. An evil man seeks only rebellion, Therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him. Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, Rather than a fool in his folly. Whoever rewards evil for good, Evil will not depart from his house.

The beginning of strife is like releasing water. Therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike, are an abomination to the Lord." Thus far the reading of God's word, a word which endures forever, which will never pass away. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for preserving your word, for bringing it to us. Father, we acknowledge the insensibleness and hardness of our own heart and ask that you might break through that this morning.

That your Holy Spirit would give us understanding. That you would teach us that we would come to the school of Christ this morning. Lord, your word is truth. It is beautiful. It is refined and purified.

And we ask that you would give us understanding this morning we ask that through it we may see you and learn more of you and come to greater obedience and love of you. This all we ask in Jesus name, amen. Well we come this morning to the last of the seven robber barons that we have been looking at that just as those titans of the last century, the last two centuries, were able to wreak havoc upon economies and nations and cultures. So these seven people that are described in the text that we have read this morning have the same effect, the same destructive effect upon the fellowship of the Church of Jesus Christ. Is Christ.

And the last one this morning is a ruler who justifies and condemns. What does that mean? Well, it is a forensic. That just means it pertains to the law. It pertains to a judge.

It pertains to the judgment of a court. It is a forensic or legal declaration, justifying or condemning. When a judge delivers a sentence of not guilty, he is making a forensic or legal declaration. He is declaring the defendant, the one who has appeared at the bar of his tribunal, he's declaring that one to be righteous. And in doing that, he has justified the person appearing before him.

It doesn't mean that he has made that person righteous. That person was already righteous or unrighteous by what they had done. By for the things that they had said or done that brought them before the tribunal. The judge is merely declaring or finding them, making a forensic declaration. When a judge or a court give a guilty sentence and says, guilty, they are condemning the defendant.

They are declaring that that person in front of them is wicked and not righteous. They didn't make them wicked. They already were wicked by the deeds that they had done. And see, this is how these scriptures use this word. And this is no little matter.

So I want to spend a few minutes looking at how the scriptures actually do use this word and that this is the meaning of this text. We see that the scriptures use this term in this way to declare as a forensic declaration and not some infusion of righteousness because of the way that the scriptures use this term to justify. They use it in the context of a declaration. For example, in Job 32, remember after all the friends had spoken and had condemned Job, then Elihu, who had waited because he was younger, he burned with anger. And he burned with anger at Job because he said Job justified himself rather than God.

He was angry not because Job was making himself righteous, that wouldn't be a reason for anger. He was angry because Job was declaring himself to be just and not declaring God to be just. He wasn't angry because Job wasn't making God just or somehow righteous. He was angry because Job was not declaring God to be just. But was instead declaring himself to be just.

He was making this forensic declaration. In the gospels in Luke chapter 7 Verse 29, it talks about all the people who heard the truth, and they justified God. They said, the people that heard him and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. Jesus had proclaimed, had been speaking to them about John the Baptist and how he was, how there was not anyone greater among those born of woman but that he was this messenger who would come and prepare the way before him. And he came preaching repentance.

And the people, when they heard Jesus, Even the tax collectors, they justified God having been baptized with the baptism of John. These were people that weren't making God righteous. He is. But They were simply declaring that He was. When we confess our sins, we're declaring and agreeing with the scriptures that we're sinners.

When these people justified God, they were declaring that God was just. And so condemn then is the opposite. It's the exact opposite of justify. It is to declare that somebody is guilty, Not just. Deuteronomy 25, Moses is giving instructions.

And he's actually going to talk about corporal punishment, civil corporal punishment. But he says if There is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. Justifying the innocent and condemning the guilty. This is something that is done by a judge. It's a declaration.

There is this dispute. People come before the judge. They are already righteous or not righteous because of what they have done. The judge isn't making them righteous. He's simply declaring what they are.

The judge didn't make the condemned man guilty. He is declaring what he already is. He's already wicked in nature because of what he has done. We know that this is a forensic term, so it's a declaration, but we also know it's a forensic declaration because it's used in the context of legal judgments. In Matthew 12 verse 36 and 37 Jesus said but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned Or Romans 8 33 who will lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

It is God who justifies who is he who condemns you see justifying and condemning. This is the work of a judge. And so that's what we mean by it being a forensic declaration. You see, this issue was the material cause of the Reformation. Just what is justification?

In the Roman Catholic view, which they clarified at the Council of Trent, They say that through ongoing justification. So you see a declaration a forensic declaration is an act it is done at a moment It's not something that is ongoing In but in the Roman Catholic view justification is ongoing and in justification the righteousness of God through Christ is infused by the Holy Spirit into us. Or through justification, we are made righteous. You see the difference? The Bible teaches that justification is a forensic declaration by God.

It's not the infusion of righteousness. And so this verse really proves this view. And that proves that the Roman Catholic view is simply not right. If you were to read this verse With their view of what justify and condemn is, it would say that he who makes the wicked righteous is an abomination. Well first of all, There is no person that could do that.

But what if somebody could? What if a king could make the wicked righteous? It justifies the wicked. What if a person could somehow infuse righteousness into that criminal standing before them and make them righteous. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Wouldn't that be good? Wouldn't we love to have a judge that could bring every guilty, wicked, vile criminal before him and justify them by making them righteous? That's not what this is talking about. No person could do that. This is speaking about the declaration of a judge to declare the wicked to be just or to condemn the guilty.

So this then is a legal or forensic declaration. And this is a very important point in Christian doctrine. But what are then the requirements for righteous judgments? Unrighteous judgments can justify the wicked and condemn the just. These are an abomination to the Lord.

What are the requirements for having righteous judgments? What is required for a judge to justify the righteous and condemn the wicked? The first requirement is that he must have the right or the true standard of righteousness. You are not going to get the right declaration if you are applying the wrong standard. If you are sent out to measure a room for cabinets or for carpet or for shingles to roof and your tape measure is incorrect.

You can measure out very carefully and record very precisely the measurement of the room. But if your tape measure is off, If one foot on your tape measure is only seven and three-quarters inches, your measurements will be wrong. And you will not make a correct declaration of the size of that roof or that room. So we must have, first of all, the right standard. And that standard of justice is the Word of God.

There is no other standard. Jesus said, sanctify them through Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. It's not just true. It is that.

But it's more than that. It is truth. It is the standard of truth. God's Word in everything, in everything of which it speaks. It is the standard.

It is that by which we measure the words and actions of all people. It is that by which we render judgments. It is that by which we must start with in rendering judgments. And yes, in the scriptures we learn many things about that. We see in the scriptures the use of logic.

The scriptures teach us to reason from major and minor premises to conclusions in reaching judgments. The right use of logic is certainly part of this. And we have in Jeremiah 26 an example of a wrong standard being used in judgment. Jeremiah received a word of the Lord. God came to him in the reign of Jehoiakim and he said, I want you to go stand in the court of God's house and I want you to speak these words to the people of Israel and you should say to them that I have been sending my prophets rising early and sending them and you haven't listened he said don't don't you diminish one word of what I'm telling you.

And so Jeremiah went and he proclaimed the word of the Lord and all the people heard him proclaiming God's judgment upon this house to make this city a curse to all the nations around in the earth. And the people weren't happy. The people, the priests and the prophets and the rulers, they seized him and said, you will die. Because what? Because they didn't like that he had proclaimed a judgment against them.

They said for that reason you've proclaimed a judgment against us. You're not a good man Jeremiah. You're a traitor. You're inciting the people. You're disheartening the people.

You're talking to them about the city's gonna fall. It's gonna be judged. There were people in Hitler's Germany that did that and they were executed because their words were just going to dishearten the German people. And that's what you had here. This is Jeremiah standing up and saying, God's going to judge this city.

See these people were applying the wrong standard instead of saying is this true according to God's word they were applying what their own patriotic notions and saying he was contradicting their patriotic notions and therefore he deserved to die they applied the wrong standard They didn't evaluate his words by the word of God, but by their own standard. See we do the same thing in our land today, though. We're no better. Most of the laws condemning homosexual fornication have been removed from our code or ignored. And so wicked people are justified.

They are declared to be righteous when in fact they are wicked and what they are doing is an abomination to the Lord. Our law today allows for doctors and mothers to murder their unborn children. The law is wrong. And because the law is wrong, the just are condemned and the wicked are justified. The people that kill their children.

That's a wicked deed. According to the law of God, according to the word of God which is true, that's a wicked deed. And yet these people are declared righteous. They're declared just. And those people who try to stop this murder are condemned as evildoers.

Not only is the abortion, the murder of unborn an abomination to the Lord, But the condemning of the just and the justifying of the wicked is also, on top of that, another abomination in our land. See, many laws today, we could probably continue on for quite some time about the laws of our land that justify the wicked and condemn the righteous. People that know more about these things have said that the average person commits three felonies every day. There are so many laws on our books condemning the just. That is what the scriptures call evil by law.

Evil by law. Changing the standard of righteousness such that evil is justified. So the first thing then that we need for a righteous judgment is the right standard. And that applies in anything, not just in court, but it would apply to anything that we seek to do, to any judgment that we seek to render, to any decision that we seek to make. But secondly, the second thing that is needed is an accurate knowledge of the words and the actions.

Oh no. The last half of my, the whole half of my sermon is not here. I printed it out, but it... An accurate knowledge of words and actions. It's a careful hearing.

That requires a careful hearing. Proverbs 18, 13 says that, He that answers a matter before he hears, it is a folly and a shame to him. You can't come to a righteous judgment and justify the righteous and condemn the wicked if you don't know what the facts are, if you haven't had a careful hearing of the matter. And that careful hearing involves a cross-examination of witnesses. A little later in that same Proverbs It says the first one to plead his cause seems right but until his neighbor comes and examines him if we're going to have a right understanding of the facts of the matter there has to be a plurality of witnesses.

There has to be a cross-examination of the case. You see, one person can tell a story and make it seem one way until you listen to somebody else. And then you have to cross examine in order to bring out the truth of the facts and accurate knowledge of words and actions today in our courts we we have a problem here as well. Evidence is deemed inadmissible, oftentimes critical evidence. Testimony is blocked from the trial.

There was a mother, Terry Overton, who was condemned for murdering her own child by a jury and a judge because key critical evidence by expert medical witnesses was blocked. It's very common today in criminal trials for whole sectors of things to be ruled inadmissible. Well, you can't bring in any evidence from this issue over here. Just, you can't bring it in. And so the people who are to try the case are not even told about significant things, because the judge has said you can't.

Terry Overton's case, the expert testimony of a doctor who understood the nature of salt poisoning and how it can happen In other ways besides what the prosecutor was saying happened that the mother had forced fed her child salt Was excluded And an innocent mother was sent to jail just up the road a few miles. The third thing that's required is a right evaluation of the facts and the law. The right application of the law and the facts such that there is no respect of persons. To respect a person is to say, well, this is an important person. Or, so, we're not going to find them guilty.

Yes, we kind of know what happened. Yes, we know what the law is. But the judgment, that process of weighing the facts and the law and reaching a conclusion in that process when there is respect of persons that process is corrupted and a different conclusion is reached with one person than would have been reached with another person. That's a respect of persons. And the scriptures tell us many, many times that God is no respecter of persons.

In when Jehoshaphat was instructing his judges, King Jehoshaphat brought many reforms to the nation of Judah. He gave his judges instructions and he reminded them that God is just and that God is not a respecter of persons and therefore you in your judgments must not be a respecter of persons. Because you are God's ministers. You represent Him. And you must be like God, not a respecter of persons.

And one of the ways that people are made a respecter of persons is with a bribe. This person has paid money. That perverts justice because it interferes with this evaluation process of weighing the the facts against the law and reaching a judgment when there is a bribe when there is a financial interest now you have perverted that evaluation And you won't reach a righteous judgment the wicked are justified and the righteous are condemned Where there is a bribe? So these three things then are necessary for righteous judgment. And I'm sorry, I don't have all the passages that I wanted to look at this morning that teach us this in the Word of God.

It would take me too long to think of them. Maybe we could print off the other side. It's in my laptop. Somebody wants to try. But then the third point, and I'm glad I put some points in the bulletin today, is what is the importance of righteous judgments?

Why does it matter? Well, yes, it's an abomination to the Lord. But it matters first because the King is God's servant. He represents God. Just like a prophet speaks the word of God, the king is God's minister.

It's his servant, ordained by God just as prophets and ministers of the gospel are ordained by God. The civil magistrate is ordained by God to be God's minister of justice. He is the one whom God is ordained to render righteous judgments. Just like the pastor is someone God is ordained to speak the truth. And if he speaks lies, it's an abomination to God.

The prophet that spoke lies was to be executed. And so in the same way, when a minister of justice, God's ordained servant renders unjust judgments, he speaks a lie about God. He misrepresents the judge of all the earth. And that's a terrible thing, to lie about God. To misrepresent His justice, because God is a just God, and God is righteous.

And those who would judge with His authority and in His name must judge as he judges, or they bring God's wrath on the land. Righteous judgments bring God's wrath on the land. Those who do, those especially in places of authority, who justify the wicked, bring God's wrath upon the land. They also bring great unrest to the land themselves. Proverbs says that when a ruler pays attention to lies, all of his officials will be wicked.

When a ruler pays attention to lies, all of his officials will be wicked. When a ruler pays attention to lies, he is somebody who is perverting justice. He's not listening to the truth. Unjust judges caused Israel to sin. When it came to pass in 1 Samuel 8, when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.

The name of his firstborn was Joel II Abijah, and they were judges. But they didn't walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain. They took bribes and predictably perverted justice. They perverted justice.

They corrupted that process of evaluating the facts that are before them in the light of the law and reaching the right judgment. They perverted that. And all the elders of Israel gathered together and they came to Samuel at Ramah and they said, look you're old, your sons don't walk in your ways, now make us a king. And it displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, you listen to what the people are saying, because they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me.

They haven't rejected you, they have rejected me. These judges, Samuel's wicked sons that were perverting justice, were representing God. And their perversion of the truth led the people, they were judging, to reject God and to demand a king, somebody different. Righteous judgments are important even in the home because it can produce the same bitterness in the home as well. Now, maybe you're thinking, doesn't the Bible say somewhere that God justifies the ungodly.

Doesn't it say that? It does. It does say that in Romans chapter 4, But to him who does not work but believes on him, that is on God, who justifies the ungodly. You might be wondering why is that? How is that consistent with this passage here, this text and what we see throughout scripture that perverting justice, justifying the wicked, is an abomination to the Lord and yet God justifies the ungodly.

Well that, brothers and sisters, is the very gospel? Yes, we are We are ungodly Chapter 3 has established that For we have previously charged Romans 3, both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is no one who understands. There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside. They have become unprofitable. There is none who does good. No, not one. We're not righteous.

Their throat is an open sepulchre tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.

This is Jew and Gentile alike. Destruction and misery are in their way and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes now we know that what the law says it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped in all the world guilty before God. This is what we are. We are not righteous people. This is a description of each of us.

Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified, No flesh will be declared righteous in His sight, for by the law is a knowledge of sin. And yet God justifies the ungodly. How is that? Verse 21, but now the righteousness of God, apart from the law is revealed, apart from our keeping of the law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. To all and on all who believe.

You see, the gospel is that the righteousness of God has been revealed from heaven. Christ is righteous. He has perfectly obeyed the law of God in every detail. Not one jot or tittle has fallen to the ground. But he took to himself a human nature.

That he might, with our nature, obey the law of God. Knowing all of the weaknesses and frailties of human flesh, knowing all the temptations that we also have. Christ came and he kept the law and therein and he is righteous and his righteousness Is imputed to our account His righteousness is charged to us and our sin, our sin, our guiltiness is imputed to him. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He didn't become a sinner.

He bore the legal guilt of our sin and has imputed to our account. That's a transactional term, to charge to our account, His righteousness. And that is received by faith. It is by faith that we lay hold of and apprehend this benefit. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely, freely, without a cause.

There is nothing in us, because God is not a respecter of persons. There is nothing in us that God looked at and said, well, I see this person has some good in them. I'm going to impute my righteousness to them and make them perfect and then declare them just. No. Being justified freely by His grace.

There is nothing in us. There is no cause in us for God to declare us just. It's by His grace. That means it's not merited. There is nothing, there is absolutely nothing in us that would lead God to say, well, this person, I see a little good in them.

I will declare them just. No, Nothing. We are all under condemnation. There is no good thing in us. But for Christ's righteousness that is imputed to us that is received by faith God on account of that righteousness declares you and me to be just And God is just in doing this.

God is, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is just because He is looking upon us through the righteousness of Christ, and He is seeing spotless perfection in the Lamb of God. And He is in our sin that deserves His wrath. God is just, He cannot simply overlook it, but he has poured out that wrath upon his son, condemned his son to die in it that was just. Because Christ willingly and voluntarily says, no man takes my life, I lay my life down and I take it up again Jesus voluntarily bore our sin and bore the penalty of the wrath of God and therefore God is just in condemning Christ for our sake.

Praise the Lord. What a beautiful Savior. What a wonderful salvation in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, We thank you that you have loved us from before the foundation of the world.

We thank you that you are a just God. In all that you do, you are just. Your judgments are perfect. For you know all the facts. For you see our hearts, our hearts, you know everything in them.

You know all things. We can hide nothing from you. And you judge rightly according to your word, according to your law, according to your own standard. And you are no respecter of persons. The greatest king is no different than the lowest pauper, the meanest slave.

For Lord, you have made both of these, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, bond and free, great and mighty and weak, all are alike. It is you that is given the great their greatness and their power and their wealth. You do not have any respect to these things, but you judge according to the true and righteous judgment. Father, we praise your grace. We praise Christ, our beautiful Savior and His righteousness.

We pray that in that day we would be found not having our own righteousness, which is as filthy rags, but that we might be found clothed in Christ's righteousness. And washed and forgiven by His sacrifice. This Lord is our only plea and this is our only hope. We bless you. We bless your name for your great mercy and grace to us in Jesus Christ.

Amen.